Hello, thank you for joining me this Sunday for our Sketch challenge. It is a very fun and creative one.
Here is the sketch we will be using. I loved the evergreen trees on this page. My original plan was to follow the sketch almost exactly. After making my trees, I liked them so much I did not want to cover them up. I therefore adjusted the sketch slightly.
Here is my final layout. I made the main page 7in wide by 8.25in tall to fit in my December Album this year. To include a longer story and more embellishing, I added two 3x4 journaling cards to the left side of the layout.
I used two Citrus Twist exclusive cut files for my trees. All the papers, cards, and embellishments came from the OH WHAT FUN! kit. I think the black and white color palette with a pop of red is such an elegant look. I made sure to pull a bit of red into each area of the spread.
I used a white, glitter texture paste from my stash to paint the center tree. Similar to the sketch, I wanted it to have a snow-flocked look. I then used a red marker to color in the stars on the cut file. It was a simple step that I think adds a lot to the design.
Here are a few more close-up looks.
Thank you for stopping by. I'd love to see what you create with this sketch.
Today I am super happy to share with you an idea I had for my December Daily: an advent calendar as a starting page, a resume of the December stories as well and as something beautiful to open and close all the times you want. It's something magic to me, to can open a little door for each day and find a little story or a surprise or just a quote! I'm thinking to so the same thing for my DD2020.
How did I create it? It's so simple and you will have a lot of fun for sure!
First of all cut 24 squares using the 6x8 papers of Sparkle & Joy kit, size 5x5 cm. Add the number s from the beautiful CountDown cut files, Then I have cut other rectangles of white papers of 5x7 cm folded at 2 cm. On the little stripe you have just created folded the rettangole glue the square with the numbers.
I played a lot with the embellishments of the ki, so puffy stickers, clipboard circles, ephemera. I just added also pictures, 7 pictures of 4,5x4,5 cm and some stories written in squares as well of 4,5 x4,5 cm. Just mix everything don't overthink about how to place things just play and have fun!
Here you find how it turns out. I have used three page protectors 2x2. I glue one to another to create something like an accordion using the part of the page protetto where you find the holes.
Here you find a video about the creative process about the advent calendar.
Hope you will be inspired to create yours ad have fun.
Hey there! It's Lory here , happy Sunday everyone! How are you? It's November 1st today, time runs and never like before I can't wait to end this year! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Don't you think? Christmas makes me feel happy without a precise reason, It happens that I wake up in the morning during December and I feel simply happy. Does this happen to you too?
Ok today I am happy to share some tips to create introduction pages for your December album, for your December stories. The Sparkle & Joy kit is fantastic because it mixes together different kids of embellishments to use and you have everything you need there!
So the first page I show you is about 12,5 x 21 cm so it includes the script with holes to hold the page in the album. I have chosen a 6x8 in patterned paper cutting a circle on the top. I used the amazing wreaths cut file from Sparkle & Joy collection and I just created a window where to write my introduction to the DD2019 stories. I don't love to start my albums with the stories, I need to create an introduction to my pages.
Once I cut the circle to hold my journaling I have put on the back of the page a lot of 3d double side tape to create a dimension and then I marked the circle window with the wreath cut file. to complete my starting page I added some puffy stickers from the kit, some ephemera, some pearls, some Christmas bells and just a little title stamped. Take a look at the following pics.
I love to add little details. They make me feel happy!
The second idea I had for a starting page was to play with the square page protectors adding a picture and many different things.
Each space is filled with many different pieces from ephemera, patterned papers and puffy stickers! I love the result! My advise is just to play and to go with the flow! I left the square for the picture I will inserti later. Another tip for an introduction is to add meaningful details, like phrases or little words.
Play with the embellishments and stamps and have fun! This is the rule!
Hope you will be inspired to create your starting pages.
Here a video to show you how I created mine:)
Thank you in advance for watching and have a wonderful Sunday!
Hi everyone! Krystal here with a few more foundation pages in my 2019 December Daily album. In case you missed the first post I did sharing my foundation pages, you can find it here.
As I noted in my first DD post, I decided to create very simple foundation pages this year. Like most of us, I know I have a very busy month ahead of me, and if I want to get this album finished, it will need to be simple. And the best thing about starting with simple pages, is that you can always add a bit more flair if you have the time and desire to do so. And since I created my foundation pages early, I had a little extra time to play with some of the products from the kit and create a few extra, fun pages!
I started with my "Reason Why" page. I always like to include a page that helps me focus on the real meaning of the season and why I take the time to create this album every year. I used one of the 3"x8" bookmarks from the Christmas Stories kit to type out my journaling, then I added a title with one of the cutapart labels included in the kit and some gold puffy alphas from a previous kit.
I added the bookmark to the back of my title page, then embellished the bottom of the card with one of the adorable tiny doilies, a die cut from the Heidi Swapp ephemera, a tag from one of the papers in the kit and a bit of twine. Super simple, but such a cute addition to my album!
I also wanted to take advantage of the amazing cut files that were included with the Christmas Stories kit, so I pulled a couple papers from my stash to make two new pages using the Christmas screens.
For both of them, I decided to cut them twice, flipping the cut file for the second cut to create both a front and a back. I cut the buffalo plaid screen from black cardstock and the candy cane stripe screen from red glitter cardstock, then I sandwiched some thin white cardstock between the front and back to make two double-sided pages. I'll use these to add extra photos or journaling on days where I need some extra space.
I also created a page using the wreath cut file from the kit. I cut the wreath twice, once from vellum and once from one of the green papers in the kit. I made sure to make the vellum wreath slightly larger than the green one so that I could layer them together with both wreaths showing.
I then used one of the vintage book pages from the kit and added it to the pink and red polka dot paper, stitching around the edge with some gold thread. Finally, I glued my two cut files to the page, adding glue only to the center so that the leaves could stick up and give the page some dimension. I finished it off with the cute little bow that was included in the kit. I see myself using this page to hold the number for one of the days and maybe a little extra journaling as well.
Finally, I used a few scraps of black cardstock to cut the three sentiment cut files from the kit. I cut each of them three times, then layered them together to give the phrases some added dimension. Then I added some Glossy Accents to the top of each word to give them an "enamel" look. I love the way these turned out! They'll be such a fun addition to one of the pages in my album!
And while I had my sewing machine out, I created a little pocket with some of the scraps from the kit, just the right size for tucking in a journal card. For more details about how I created these pages, check out the video below.
How are you documenting your December? Have you started creating foundation pages? I'd love to hear how you're using your kit!
Hi friends! Emma on the blog today and I am so excited to share my completed December album! Yep, you read that right; I have actually finished it - wohooo! I am so happy I could dance, ha!
I've already shared the first few pages of my album in the CTK Facebook Fanpage but I thought I'd share the whole album here so apologies if you're already seen a few of these before ;) I used the Christmas Stories kits for the majority of my album but there are also pieces from previous years kits and other random things from my stash throughout.
This year I went with a 4x4 album and painted the cover (it was white with purple spots, I covered the whole thing in white paint and added gold spots!). I'm definitely not going to win any awards with this paint work, but I actually don't mind how it turned out! Edges are wearing already but that's OK.
The album has finished up ALOT chunkier than I'd anticipated. I love a chunky mini but this one is really stretching the limits! I've had to use a band to keep it closed because it can't close properly (and I need to be a little careful turning the pages so the rings don't pop open...oops!). I used a red elastic band I had in my stash from who-knows-what and added a few "charms" - a die cut, sticker and actual charm (from a dear friend!).
Before I go on too much, here's a quick flip through of the whole album (sped it up 2x so it's just over a minute, didn't want it to take too long and bore you all!):
Rather then show photo's of every page, I thought I'd just share a few of my favourites and talk about those but if you have any questions about others, please leave a comment below and I'll get back to you!
The most surprising thing I've noticed about my album (now that it's all done) is the amount of
red I've used! Red isn't a colour I use a lot of (scrapbooking and in real life) but it's on
almost every page of this album and I actually love it!
I love my intro page - it's super simple but something different. I had some gold craft wire in my stash so I used that to form my circle and used the hot-glue gun to stick it down. Then I picked a few chipboard stickers and white sequins and stuck them on top (using the glue-gun again). So easy right?
No mini-album of mine is complete without some kind of sequin pocket. I love them. I think they add a fun interactive element to any book. I used my sewing machine to stitch the top of my page so they don't pop out (one day I'll invest in the Fuse...).
On this page I used one of the papers from the December Add-on (Sweater Weather "Cozy") and added various stickers inside each of the boxes and added some (red!) pompom trim at the bottom of the page. Another simple but effective page to put together (it's how I roll!).
The majority of my album relates to the elf and his daily antics. We don't typically do a whole lot of "Christmas-themed" activities during the month (other than the crazy shopping) but we do have our elf, Freddie, and he is always entertaining so I include everything he does in my album. All of my journaling is typed up on the computer (using a typewriter font) because I'm not too fond of my own handwriting. Actually that's not true, my handwriting is fine until I put it on a scrapbooking page, and then I think it makes it look messy, haha. Weird but true.
I've also included a few random notes from the elf and tucked them behind the photo/journaling and just used ribbon that's stapled to the tops so you can pull them out. And yes, more red....
My album is actually repetitive in the layouts I've used - such as this one - I used big photos and added a word/embellishment directly on top, then for my journaling I'll either have it on the page beside or on a tag of some sort. I love having different textures in my album so I've used various ribbons/twine/elastics to loop the tags over the rings. (Although I picked up the WRMK Crop-A-Dile so I'm currently addicted to adding eyelets to everything!!)
I completely forgot to take photo's when we went to my brothers for our Christmas Day lunch. I packed the camera/tripod so I could get the family photo's but never got around to it! Just means we were having too much fun hanging out :) I also blame the fact that I was super tired, haha - I got to bed late and Zack was up super early....I am a girl who need her sleep!
But it's not the end of the world, sure the photo's would have been great but I added a quick little note saying I'd forgotten and talked about the awesome food. We love our food ;)
Using the Christmas Stories kits made this album so easy to put together. And it all coordinated so well with pieces from previous years Christmas kits so I was able to use up pieces from those too (I never, ever throw out or give away my Christmas-themed items haha, they stay in my stash forever!).
I loved putting this little book together; makes me so happy to have those random little bits down on paper (with photos) so that hopefully in the years to come, we can look back and have a little giggle about the fun we had at Christmas time (while Zack still believed in the magic ;) ).
And if you've made it to the end of this post - THANK YOU! Sorry for the novel but I'm hoping this might help inspire you to finish your own album (if you've not done so already - and if you have - HOORAY!). Remember, if you have any questions at all, please leave a comment below and I'll get back to you! I'll also be sharing all the photo's on my blog (all 43+, eek!) incase you wanted to see more.
This is my last post on the CTK blog for 2017 (I'm back in 2018 though!) so I just want to say thank you so much for your support this year; it's such an honor to be a part of this team and I hope a few of the projects I've shared this year might have inspired you, even if it's just a teeny bit! Best wishes for the New Year - please stay safe and have fun!!!
Take care, Em xo
Who is ready for December? If it was up to me, Christmas decorations will go up as soon as Thanksgiving is done (that means the 2nd weekend of October, here in Canada!), but i have to wait until mid November ( it is call, "compromising").
Regardless, I am living my December dreams by getting my Traveler's Notebooks ready to hold all my precious memories in one single spot. For the past years i have chosen this method to document our stories; it is a smaller and ( personally) easier to manage, especially when you have a very event-full December.
Since there will be lots of embellishments being added to the notebooks, I have created two inserts for my TN so that they are easier to work with once they start to get filled with our stories. For the first one, I used pieces from the Main Christmas kit, and Mini Kit #1 to create the cover of the insert. The Christmas Stories stamp is not just beautiful, but versatile, as it was used here to add sentiments and to create the cover page of the insert. That small pocket came together in a few steps, and will house a small note about what the book is all about.
The inserts I have created will be able to house our December stories, but not in the December Daily format. However some of the DD ideas can be adapted to the Traveler's Notebook format. In the second insert, I chose to use the Christmas Stories stamp, and some gold embossing powder to create the small tree of sentiments featured in the front page of the TN. The cover of this insert was created with pieces from the Christmas Stories kits, and a paper from my stash.
I chose to add a small note to the first page of this insert that just tells about my wishes and hopes for the month. The story was then framed with a paper from the Christmas Stories main kit (which has already sold out!), and attached to a piece of paper (from my stash) that complements the kit. I just love all the stickers and embellishments included in all the kits. There is so much to chose from, and makes it so easy to create all the pages. Here is more in depth look at how these came together, so sit back an enjoy the following video:
I hope you are inspired to start your December documenting. It does not matter what the format or length of your album/book looks like, the important thing is that you document all those stories that are dear to you heart. Stop by the CTK store to check all the mini kits and the gorgeous stamp which are featured in this post.
Remember, I am just a comment away if you have questions on these. I will also be sharing my December Stories TN progress on my social media outlets, and the CTK Friends Facebook page.
